Month: March 2024

When God Interrupts

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While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:18-19 ESV

Over the last five days, because of sickness our agenda has been unceremoniously trashed, and we had to cancel most of our plans. Finally on Sunday afternoon, my wife and I went to a walk-in clinic, hoping to find some help. Though we came away with a diagnosis of nothing more serious than Bronchitis, it was frustrating to realize just how little control we had over our plans. Of course, not all agenda changing in our lives occurs due to negative circumstances. In today’s verse, we find Peter and Andrew finishing up their shift at work, after a long night of fishing. Then, while they were washing their nets before heading home for breakfast Jesus interrupted their plans, with a plan of His own. Though we have the advantage of knowing that Peter and Andrew went on to become Apostles, they were probably thinking about what their wives were cooking for breakfast! Imagine how the pages of the Bible would be different if they just told Jesus that they would go home and pray about it (after a nap!) There would have been, no story of Andrew, bringing a boy with five loaves of bread for Jesus to multiply and no Peter, walking on water to go to Jesus. Though they didn’t know it at the time, the history of nations lay in the balance that day, because God has chosen them to do something different than they had planned.

Has God has disrupted your schedule recently? If you are like me, you may have been irritated, frustrated or even just plain mad about having to cancel your carefully crafted plans. But as Christians, we need to remind ourselves, that God knows what is best, and He wants us to trust our schedule into His hands. We never know if instead of fishing at the lake, Jesus just might want us to go with Him and start fishing for men!

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Life From the Dead

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments 

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:6 ESV

(I have probably posted this in the past, but since it is one of my favorite personal stories that link with Easter, I am republishing for some of you to reread and for my newer followers to discover for the first time. )

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As I was driving home from work one day, I saw a turtle crawling across the road. “What a great thing to show our boys!” I thought. So, I pulled over, scooped Him up and gently placed him on the passenger seat and drove home. As I walked in the door that afternoon, cradling the little turtle in my hands, our two young sons rushed over to see what I was holding. They were out of their minds with excitement as we made up a box for him, complete with water and grass. But our turtle wasn’t happy. He wouldn’t eat or drink anything and as the days passed we realized that Mr. Turtle needed to be set free. The next day we drove to the outskirts of town, where I had found him. I found a good spot and pulled over. Then I gently took the turtle out of his box and put him on the ground. At first he remained motionless, and I began to wonder if he had died. But as we walked away, he slowly eased one foot, out of his shell and then another. Then, he poked out his head, took one look back and raced away as fast as his stubby legs could carry him! Mr. Turtle’s surprising revival reminded me of Jesus. His friends wept and walked away without hope on Good Friday. But that was not the end of His story. Very early, on Easter Sunday morning, Jesus sat up, placed first one foot and then the other on the ground, and then walked out of that grave to give us life from the dead with Him!

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Praying for Our Children

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Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 
Psalm 90:16 ESV

When our children were young, we had big plans for their lives. We sacrificed, saved, and struggled so that they would have better opportunities than we had. But the day came with each of them, when they moved out on their own and began doing things on their own, sometimes in directions we had never thought of. Though it wasn’t easy, the reality was that we had to learn to let go of our control. We needed to trust that just as God had lovingly directed and corrected us over the years, that they would also have to fall down here and there in order to experience God’s power in helping them back up again. That is something of the situation in which Moses writes Psalm 90. The children of Israel were somewhere in the desert on their forty-year journey. They definitely had some huge missteps along the way. They grumbled, tried to elect a new leader to take them back to Egypt and even built a golden calf. Yet, after some grave consequences, along with Moses pleading for God’s mercy, they eventually made it. It amazes me that Moses didn’t plead for himself to be allowed to go into the promised land, instead, he prayed that God would show His power to the next generation. With all the focus that is put on discovering our gifts and fulfilling our purpose, sometimes we forget that God also has a purpose for the next generation. Sometimes the most important job we have is to pray for God to help our children experience His power for themselves. We may not have the opportunity to cross every river ourselves, but we can ask for God’s grace and power for those who will. God gives each of us a small but special part in His enormous plan. First we need to be faithful to do all the work that God has given us, and then we need to pray for the ones coming after us to discover His will for themselves. Our job is to pass along our faith, not our plans. In our case, though our kids haven’t done a lot of things we planned on, what God has given them to do is better than anything we ever imagined. If we will be willing to pray, for them to see God’s power for themselves, then one day, we will meet on the other side of the river and rejoice together because of both God’s amazing plan and HIs amazing grace